I think that's a little one sided.

My job is project management. I hate remote working. And that's because by the time something is big enough that someone feels like they need to notify me, my first options of mitigation have already passed. If I hear two engineers at the desk next to me discuss something, or if someone gives me a headsup because we happened to meet at the coffee machine, my job becomes so much easier. I much, much, much prefer a hybrid style where people spend 1-2 days a week doing focus work at home, and spend the other 2-4 days in the office doing collaborative or less focussed work.

It has nothing to do with me needing an 'in person audience because I'm narcissistic'.

As a manager I see my job as finding ways to do my job with the least intrusiveness on my peoples preferred working style. I’ll posit constricting a workflow that depends on random events to be effective isn’t effective or predictable, and your challenge can be solved in other ways than requiring employees to do something they don’t want to for your convenience. If you work in a global company you’ll often have teams spread out between locations. You can’t ask everyone to get together a few days a week. That’s been true since global teams were possible. How did they ever function before the pandemic? Frankly not as well as they do after.

"by the time something is big enough that someone feels like they need to notify me, my first options of mitigation have already passed"

That's a communication issue which managers believe is rooted from remote work. I'm on the other end of your example, and there's a reason why people aren't telling you problems immediately, perhaps reflect on that.

> there's a reason why people aren't telling you problems immediately, perhaps reflect on that.

Inertia?

Yeah and why should other people come to the office to make their lives harder only to make yours easier. Are you listening to yourself?